“The Best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart”

– Helen Keller

Sincere Apologies for the long gap between posts. It was unintentional, the summer months in Britain is our official holiday season! that means going to India. It’s become a kind of ritual I have to go to India whatsoever! To visit my parents and family. It’s like Popeye and his spinach. It’s like the potion of love and I can somehow manage the whole year without seeing them. It all comes back to heart down the lane, it’s that love which makes you do things and takes you places without which we do not survive.

“Love is not a matter of what happens in life it’s matter of how you are dealing with it” – Ken Keyes

Coming back from India I had to juggle with a lot of things, every year the same story repeats itself predominantly, things to sort out! Kids going back to University and my lovely garden needed a lot of tending some tear and care as it was kind of abandoned with a ritual of unrealistic seasonal changes with sunny spells, sudden emotional downpours! And off course the ghastly wind how can I forgo it from my thoughts, remember those days one cold night in December the northern lights brought severe winds which would bring Santa down to earth but alas! It blew away my innocent greenhouse to my next door neighbour’s garden, knocking things around. Poor Lady called me waking me up from my dreams to the reality to a shock of how she was trying to hold down the greenhouse not to fly away to visit another neighbour! who wouldn’t be happy at all!

With all the chaos I baked this cake, this cake brings me back a lot of wonderful memories. My school days when I would wait for my daddy to bring this cake for us to munch on as after school snack, sometimes we would be treated with puffs, apple cake, Khara bun, palya Bun and Congress Kadalekai beeja (Indian Spiced peanuts) the list can go on and on, But, this cake was always my favourite. A cake so delicious so moist with the sweetness of honey. A cake you wouldn’t say No!

This would be a perfect cake for any celebration be it a valentine’s Day or Birthday or just a keep it as a centre-piece! when baked it in a tray it goes to say pick me up. This cake can also be an inspiration for the Breast Cancer awareness #Pinktober 2016.

Everything to do with your heart, either way , A day to celebrate Love –

“Doubt thou the stars are fire; doubt that the sun doth move; doubt truth to be a liar; but never doubt I love you. I love thee, I love but thee with a love that shall not die. Till the sun grows cold and the stars grow old”

– William Shakespeare.

Little did I know I would have to travel again which came as a surprise and I had to do this post, my holiday simply extended within a span of weeks now I am in Netherlands! A country which I love coming back to! A country with Scenic beauty and a land of canals, anywhere and everywhere you turn around you are surrounded by water, you just can’t miss it. Streaming down with lush greenery, swans, ducks and whatnots swimming and wading and an array of birds – chirping and chattering playfully on the trees, giving us a wake-up call. The beautiful landscape has never ceased to amaze me.

It’s a love affair, it might be a fellow human being or nature it doesn’t matter and it has no criteria. Love is a universal Language, it doesn’t know caste, creed, colour or religion. Rich or poor alike, it is just a given and give policy. So, here is how you make this cake, pouring lots of love to it…..

“Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye” – H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Method
1. Keep all the Ingredients at room temperature
2. Take a 9’’ by 3’’ heart shaped cake tin or a square tin** prepare the tin by rubbing the butter and then sprinkling All-purpose Flour completely so it is well coated.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F/180 degree C/Gas Mark 4
4. In a mixing bowl take all the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Using a sieve sift the dry ingredients at least 3 times so they are well combined. set it aside.
5. In a large mixing bowl take butter and whip it until it is light and fluffy, then add sugar ¼ cup at a time until everything is incorporated.
6. Now to this butter, mix add one egg at a time and beat well, If you find it curdling please do not panic it’s just normal add 2 tbsp of the flour mix into it. Use all the eggs until well combined, add 2 tsp of vanilla essence when beating the eggs.
7. Now take the dry ingredients and combine carefully little at a time. Fold it in the butter & egg mixture without over mixing it.
8. Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for at least 45 to 50 minutes, mine took around 50-55 minutes. This depends completely on how your oven works.
9. Check the cake with a skewer or any other way by piercing it in the middle of the cake to make completely sure that the skewer comes out clean.
10. When it’s baking make the syrup / topping for the cake. Place a pan on a low flame to this add Honey and mixed fruit jam to loosen it up. Once it starts to combine well and a tbsp of water mix it thoroughly and keep it aside until needed.
11. Remove the cake once done onto a cooling rack. Let it cool for 10 to 15 minutes.
12. Taking a toothpick, prick holes all around the cake. If your cake tin is springform, it is easy to remove even after pouring the syrup. If not, it is better to remove the cake onto a serving plate, or onto a stand.
13. Place it on a board and pour the warm topping mixture onto to the cake completely spreading it all around. Don’t allow it to drizzle around. once the syrup is poured all over the cake. Leave it for a while 20 to 25 minutes.
14. Then sprinkle the desiccated coconut all over the cake and that’s it your cake is done.
15. Just bake it and enjoy it.
** In India this cake is usually baked in a square tin and cut into small squares and sold individually.

Most delicious cake, Drizzled with the sweetness of honey and jam. It's definitely a honey cake!

Author: Jayasri

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Indian

Serves: 6

Ingredients

Ingredients for the cake

185 grams All-Purpose Flour

185 grams Sugar

150 grams Butter

50 grams Coconut Oil

5 Eggs

½ tsp Baking Soda

¾ tsp Baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 tsp Agar Agar powder or cream of tartar

2 tsp vanilla essence

Ingredients for the topping

6 tbsp Jam

4 tbsp Honey

1 tbsp water

¼ to ⅓ cup Desiccated Coconut

Instructions

Keep all the Ingredients at room temperature

Take a 9’’ by 3’’ heart shaped cake tin or a square tin** prepare the tin by rubbing the butter and then sprinkling All-purpose Flour completely so it is well coated.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F/180 degree C/Gas Mark 4

In a mixing bowl take all the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Using a sieve sift the dry ingredients at least 3 times so they are well combined. set it aside.

In a large mixing bowl take butter and whip it until it is light and fluffy, then add sugar ¼ cup at a time until everything is incorporated.

Now to this butter, mix add one egg at a time and beat well, If you find it curdling please do not panic it’s just normal add 2 tbsp of the flour mix into it. Use all the eggs until well combined, add 2 tsp of vanilla essence when beating the eggs.

Now take the dry ingredients and combine carefully little at a time. Fold it in the butter & egg mixture without over mixing it.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for at least 45 to 50 minutes, mine took around 50-55 minutes. This depends completely on how your oven works.

Check the cake with a skewer or any other way by piercing it in the middle of the cake to make completely sure that the skewer comes out clean.

When it’s baking make the syrup / topping for the cake. Place a pan on a low flame to this add Honey and mixed fruit jam to loosen it up. Once it starts to combine well and a tbsp of water mix it thoroughly and keep it aside until needed.

Remove the cake once done onto a cooling rack. Let it cool for 10 to 15 minutes.

Taking a toothpick, prick holes all around the cake. If your cake tin is springform, it is easy to remove even after pouring the syrup. If not, it is better to remove the cake onto a serving plate, or onto a stand.

Place it on a board and pour the warm topping mixture onto to the cake completely spreading it all around. Don’t allow it to drizzle around. once the syrup is poured all over the cake. Leave it for a while 20 to 25 minutes.

Then sprinkle the desiccated coconut all over the cake and that’s it your cake is done.

Just bake it and enjoy it.

** In India this cake is usually baked in a square tin and cut into small squares and sold individually.

Notes

This cake is usually baked in a square tin, I have baked it in a medium sized heart shaped tin. You can bake it in a square tin and cut into a heart shape as I have done as shown.

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Hi everybody how have you all been doing? I am so happy Diwali has brought me a special gift in my blogging world!! Yup! I am excited to share with you all are you interested in hearing? This is my first ever product review! I never thought I would get a chance like this, when I was glancing through my mails on my iphone, I chanced upon an email from Indigo herbs saying products dispatched! Excitedly I opened up my email to see what products they had sent I was jumping with joy in my heart to see Organic Coconut flour, Organic Banana powder, Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, Organic Coconut Sugar, Organic Raw white Sesame Tahini paste, Organic Raw Black Sesame Tahini Paste. Thank you Indigo Herbs for giving me an opportunity to create a recipe for you and so glad that I got a chance to try all these lovely products.

I have been quiet busy we had Diwali this week, did you all enjoy and had a safe Diwali. I haven’t brought you what I made for Diwali but something different for a change, bake this for a thanksgiving celebration or for Christmas or for a birthday or just a weekend treat, well it’s so delicious you don’t need a reason to bake this cake. My photos don’t make justice to this cake if you love coconut this is for you. I baked this cake a fortnight ago but, as I was prepping up for Diwali I couldn’t post it.

I am a bit of a health freak, I stopped baking regularly once I realised I was making my family eat too much unhealthy stuff, I started looking for things I could change to make it bit healthier say if not 100% at least to some extent, when I decided I started changing flours then how I could cut down on fat and refined sugar. The thing which I still am unable to compensate is Sugar, my family have come to terms with flours and fat but not with sugar, they are fine with unrefined sugar but I am not allowed to reduce itJ. So, I can’t do anything about it unfortunately. When I shop I keep looking for different ingredients I can bake with one such product I had an eye for a long time was Coconut flour, I was always tempted to buy and try it out but somehow I kept postponing. Probably I was waiting for a good Organic product as this one.

These days people have started thinking about their diet seriously, they are switching on to gluten free, dairy free, egg free, paleo diet etc. So, here is your stop for Organic products to buy online which is worldwide shipped with a full postal guarantee. I was so happy to receive emails telling me, its dispatched and when it will arriving then another email telling me when it will be delivered and who is delivering it, his name and what time! Isn’t it fantastic?

Somerset is a county in South west England, and is known for its beautiful country side with rolling hills and is a beautiful country side. Here in Somerset is Glastonbury is not just famous for a musical festival but also Indigo Herbs who are online suppliers of organically developed healthy/alternative life style products bringing about natural health products of the best quality as their website states. They have brought about products for all kind of life style, organic blends which can be used as substitutes for different kinds of food diets.

As this was the first time I was using Coconut flour in my baking I had to do some research on how to use it, lots of people said it’s a very highly absorbent flour, some of them said you need to use a tried and tested recipe to get a perfect bake, it all scared me a bit, but as I had already decided to go with it. I gave it a go, Coconut flour is a unique non-grain fibre rich protein highly absorbent flour. Coconut flour is made from coconut milk when it is pressed the left over coconut bits that is the solid which is left over is dried over at low temperature and ground to produce a soft fine powder. So we all know about coconut flour now let’s get baking with it.

METHOD:
Preheat the oven to 180°C / Gas mark 4, Grease a Bundt cake with any of the gluten free flour about I mixed it with a bit of coconut flour as well.
In a bowl mix all the dry ingredients millet flour, sorghum flour, Baking powder and Baking soda sieve well and keep aside.
In another bowl mix the wet ingredients Coconut sugar, Caster sugar, coconut milk, Pineapple puree, coconut oil and olive oil blend them well together
In a bowl break one egg at a time and beat them well adding both the sugars until fluffy to this add the wet ingredients until smooth.
Completely incorporate the dry ingredients with the help of a spatula.
I made a Chocolate mixture using the ingredients above the chocolate layer heading.
Pour in the cake batter into the prepared Bundt tin in two parts layering the Chocolate mixture.
Bake this for about 55 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean when inserted near the tube of the tin.
Let it cool then release the cake around tap gently and unmold it from the pan onto a wire rack.
In a bowl combine the Icing sugar with the pineapple juice until it is thick and runny, pour this over the cooled cake allowing it to drip it down the sides of the cake then sprinkle some desiccated coconut over it to get a more coconut flavour if you prefer otherwise just leave it as it is.

Somethings to note:
Please check your oven as my oven very heated up I bake my cakes in Gas mark 3, I have mentioned above the usual cake baking temperature. I baked my cake for 55 minutes.
I was just thinking I shouldn’t have used chocolate layer this way next time I would completely make it a chocolate cake or a marble swirl cake.
I have cut a circle in a cardboard using a Bundt pan and a hole in the middle and insert it into the tin, this helps the cake sliding on to the board nicely.
I have given 3 tbsp of pineapple juice don’t wonder why I have not said anything about it, as the batter had become slightly thicker than I wanted it to be I used it to thin it down.
I used Canned Pineapple and the juice from it, if you are going to use fresh pineapple just check if they are sweet otherwise you might end up with a sour cake and your sugar wouldn’t match it.
I have used canned coconut milk as well, buy the best product I did not use the water but the thick cream on top when you open it.
Hope you Enjoy baking this cake, My family and friends told me that it was very moist for a gluten free flour and they could never think it was a gluten free. If you bake this cake do write to me and tell me how it turned out

In a bowl break one egg at a time and beat them well adding both the sugars until fluffy to this add the wet ingredients until smooth.

Completely incorporate the dry ingredients with the help of a spatula.

I made a Chocolate mixture using the ingredients above the chocolate layer heading.

Pour in the cake batter into the prepared Bundt tin in two parts layering the Chocolate mixture.

Bake this for about 55 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean when inserted near the tube of the tin.

Let it cool then release the cake around tap gently and unmould it from the pan onto a wire rack.

In a bowl combine the Icing sugar with the pineapple juice until it is thick and runny, pour this over the cooled cake allowing it to drip it down the sides of the cake then sprinkle some desiccated coconut over it to get a more coconut flavour if you prefer otherwise just leave it as it is.

Notes

Please check your oven as my oven very heated up I bake my cakes in Gas mark 3, I have mentioned above the usual cake baking temperature. I baked my cake for 55 minutes.I was just thinking I shouldn’t have used chocolate layer this way next time I would completely make it a chocolate cake or a marble swirl cake.I have cut a circle in a cardboard using a Bundt pan and a hole in the middle and insert it into the tin, this helps the cake sliding on to the board nicely.I have given 3 tbsp of pineapple juice don’t wonder why I have not said anything about it, as the batter had become slightly thicker than I wanted it to be I used it to thin it down.I used Canned Pineapple and the juice from it, if you are going to use fresh pineapple just check if they are sweet otherwise you might end up with a sour cake and your sugar wouldn’t match it.I have used canned coconut milk as well, buy the best product I did not use the water but the thick cream on top when you open it.

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Thank you Indigo Herbs for sending me these products. All the opinions is my own and are under no influence.

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I think this is the month of Dutch specialties Yes, I will be posting an other one, which I baked but I haven’t posted. Already this post is 1 day late, This is a very delicious cake I baked, so say our customers (@home!!), and they recommend my cake to our friends as well, My kids have been praising me so much, they just loved the coconut in it.., If your coconut maniac like me you will just love this, I myself couldn’t resist eating it.

As always I have changed the recipe to Baking it Eggless and also made it vegan. I was a bit scared how it turns out.., to my astonishment, it was a total success.

Before going on to my cake recipe, I have to tell you that this might be not your choice of cake, as I have used a different flour, you might not want to try it out, If you don’t like you can just stick on with All purpose flour / Maida flour / plain flour. The cake was a bit chewy but so so soft couldn’t believe it.

METHOD:
Preheat Gas Mark 4 / 180 C**
Grease a baking 8 – 9” square or round tin with parchment paper and keep it ready.
Take all the dry Ingredients in a large bowl both the flours, baking powder and baking soda, sieve them all well together and keep aside.
.In an other bowl take coconut milk, vanilla essence, oil, Apple cider and coconut sugar, beat them all until well combined.
Immediately start adding the dry Ingredients in little quantities, until all of them is incorporated completely.
Pour this batter into the tin and bake for 20 – 25 minutes ***, until well baked or a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
Meanwhile when it is baking make the topping and keep it ready.
Once the cake is ready remove it from the oven, leave the oven to 200 degree / Gas mark 5.
Spread the topping on top of the baked cake, put it back into the oven and bake it for an other 10 minutes, Remove it from the oven cut it into squares and serve it.

This total is not exactly a Danish cream cake, I have changed to my liking as this was a challenge, we have made it Eggless according to the challenge. To make it more healthier I have used Barley flour. If you want the real Danish cream cake, check the link above and make this wonderful cake. You will definitely love it.

VARIATION AND NOTES:
*I have used Barley flour for healthy baking you can just substitute with plain flour which might have a superb texture and won’t
** I baked this in Gas mark 3, as always I say my oven gets too hot and burns loads of my baking!!
*** As I baked it in lower Gas mark, I had to bake it for around 30-35 minutes.

VERDICT:
The cake was bit chewy, but very delicious, If you love coconut, this is the cake for you, My kids really loved it so much, I had never seen my children eating dessert immediately after food, they ate promptly and recommended to my friends too…something new and something you should know…
I have used coconut palm sugar, which is not too sweet, it was quite expensive, I started searching about this product and I have come to know much about it, I will do a post about this soon.., After that you can decide do you want to use it or not, I thought I could recommend it to people with diabetes, even though it has low GI Index, it is high in fructose, as Googling I found out that sugar is sugar, and use it less is good. This has a Caramalized taste, It is not too sweet, so your cake will not be too sweet, you can substitute ordinary sugar, brown sugar, caster sugar etc.., It is golden brown in colour and is unprocessed.

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Hi everybody, Looking through the window truly gloomed, weather wet and the sky making you feel to tuck yourself under the duvet and do nothing. But, Go out into the streets and the shopping complexes you will feel the festive spirit every where, makes you feel happy and doesn’t depress you any more. That is Christmas, looking around you even though I don’t have Christmas I enjoy it so much.Buying gifts, writing cards to friends is such an enjoying thing, My kids especially my second one enjoys it so much, she has bought gifts for her friends and packed with such care., I really enjoy seeing her excitement. This post had to be up yesterday, suddenly things happened so had to post pone it for today. Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen asked us to Bake one of the three different cakes two suggested by Suja of Kitchen Corner try it and the other one by Archana of Tangy minds.I chose this Chocolate Brazil nut cake immediately after I got to read the doc sent by swathi, do you know why, because for one I love nuts and Brazil nuts too…, kids love chocolate.., what else can you ask for…Long back, when I came here my Husband used to get me so many things which I wouldn’t have seen tasted or seen in India. One of them was these Brazil nuts, I did not like them at all when he bought, after few months one day when I was sitting with my friend she was having some nuts to eat and and offered me few of them I started eating one of it, and it tasted really nice, that was when I asked which nut was this and she said it was Brazil nuts, I was surprised that it tasted so nice and then my thoughts went to my H and felt sad that I had not even bothered to taste it but said I didn’t like it 🙁 .These Brazil nuts have very buttery taste and delicious to eat, I started eating them often and one day I read that they are high in calories but cholesterol free.., any-ways I thought whatever I am eating I will eat it in limited quantities. Sometimes you won’t realize this when you like something very much right ?.Ok, let’s get back to this recipe..,This cake recipe was from Faye Levy , Chocolate Sensations, HP Books Inc, USA, 1986, p 22-23. for the original recipe. as I tweaked it a bit for making it eggless.I Changed the quantity of the flour as this basic recipe calls for 6 eggs, replacing 6 eggs is not easy, the volume of the cake and sponginess of the cake is because of the eggs, the quantity of the flour used in the recipe is just 1/4 cup with lots of butter, If I am to keep the quantity of butter I need to change the quantity of flour by increasing it to get the cake consistency. so I made some changes I increased the flour, lessened the butter because Brazil nuts have their own oil content in it. Let me stop this here and tell you how I made this cake….

EGGLESS CHOCOLATE – BRAZIL NUT CAKE

Do not look at my photos nor my frosting :).., still trying out sort out my photo problems..

METHODLine a 9” cake tin with parchment paper, and butter the sides and flour them and set aside until needed.Toast Brazil Nuts in oven for 10 minutes and rub against each other to remove skin as much as possible.Using 2 tbsp of sugar grind Brazil nuts to powder in intervals, if you continuously grind it, the oil in it makes it very greasy.Now to this powdered nuts add All purpose flour mix them well together and with the help of a sieve, running your hands or spoon in it get a good perfect powder and keep aside the larger nuts which doesn’t go through the filter.Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4 / 180 degrees…To this powder add Baking powder, Baking soda & cream of tartar and set aside.Meanwhile peel the skin and core of 3 Apples chop them into fine pieces, grind them into a smooth batter with 1/4 cup of milk and set aside. Do not keep it for too long as it turns dark in colour.In a double boiler melt chocolate, in a simmering bowl of hot water, to this add butter and mix well until you get a smooth consistency and to this batter, add the apple smoothie to it and cook for few minutes. ( 2 to 3 minutes) , switch off the stove, allow it to cool, to this add apple cider vinegar.In a large bowl take the dry Ingredients and Sugar, mix well together, make a well add the liquid batter and fold it in until well incorporated.Pour this batter into the prepared tin and bake until well done, a skewer inserted should come out cleanI baked this cake in Gas Mark 3 as my oven temperature becomes too hot at Gas Mark 4 so check out your oven for suitable baking temperatures. I baked my cake for 50 minutes.REMEMBER : Check out temperature and timing to bake your cake according to your oven, as ovens vary..Take it out of the oven on to a cooling rack after 10 minutes remove it from the tinWLFOR FROSTING:In a bowl bring cream to boil, remove it from the stove and immediately add the chocolate pieces let it melt and until smooth, to this add butter, Honey and beat it until it forms peaks. Apply this frosting to the completely cooled down cake.I did not garnish it with Brazil nuts but just topped it with cherries..,

You will have to wait for the tasting sensation…, I am waiting for my kids to tell me how it tasted…, tune in tomorrow check out this space for an other piece of information., I thought it tasted too much of nuts, when I pulled out a little piece from it.., will eat a bigger piece and tell you how it tasted…. ok… until then c you soon with an other recipe tomorrow…take care….

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Hi everybody, Hope you are all doing well, Day by Day weather is getting colder and colder, I thought we might be having snow as the temperature are dipping down and down, A bit scary for me, and I hate the heaters, I keep bringing it down and my family hate me for that, I hate the heater as I end up having headaches.., even though sometimes I like winter I don’t like the heaters. One more thing I get scared of winter is the Bug which goes around when everybody gets sick and goes around in circles :)), almost every year I get stuck with flu and suffer too much, so this time I decided I will get a Flu Jab and escape from this problem, funnily after taking the flu jab within 4 days I was down with Laryngitis and viral fever and that too I got complete down the day my mom went back to India!!.Anyways Flu which bugged me for a long time kept me away from blogging and I missed to post few of my recipes for the Events which I was part of it, I have to thank all of them for understanding my problem and allowed me to post when I recover and here I am ready to post one by one and hope you will enjoy as did my friends and family.Gayatri of Gayatri’s cook spot had asked us to make a Butter Cake for the Eggless Baking Challenge and I thought this was a chance to post a cake which I used to do before when I used to use lot of butter, I have cut down a lot these days on butter, but as this cake is a butter cake you can’t go back on it right ?, This time I changed a bit from my usual Eggless butter cake recipe, which also turned out really well, My other cake I will post someday soon the usual recipe I always make. Hope you like this , Bake it, eat it, enjoy it, and write to me about it. Here is how the recipe goes…

I have decided to post my event recipes from today continuously for 4 days. I want to do this so I can post my other recipes soon, as I have been baking quite a lot, and want to post them all stay tuned for these bakes…

METHOD:Sift all the dry Ingredients ( All purpose flour, Baking powder, Baking soda and corn starch ) together and keep aside. (except for sugar)Preheat oven to Gas Mark 4 / 170 degreeLine a Baking tin 9”Take a Large bowl add melted butter and sugar cream them well together, In a blender ( I used my Indian mixie ) Blend condensed milk with milk, add it to the creamed mixture, mix them all well enough.To this add vinegar, vanilla extract and warm water and combine them all.Now add the dried Ingredients to the combined liquid ingredients little at a time, and make sure there are no lumps in the cake batter.Pour this batter into the prepared tin, Bake it for 35 minutes depending upon your oven, check if it is baked perfectly by inserting a skewer or tooth pick, when it comes out clean cake is done.Remove it from the oven and cool it on a wiring rack for 10 minutes then release it from the tin. Allow it to completely cool down and enjoy…Gayatri had asked us to do cinnamon topping. which I did not do, I have given the topping ingredients you need to melt, mix well and top it on the cake when it is still warm.My kids didn’t want that topping so I added cinnamon powder to the cake batter itself.

Thanks Gayatri Enjoyed it, Thanks for giving me time to post…Check this link for the round-up of all the Eggless Butter cakes

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Hi everybody, Hope you are all doing well, Last month I had stepped down in the CCC – that is Crazy Cooking Challenge as it was something Tina asked everybody to cook which was something to do with Non-veg. But this month she asked us to do a Cheese Cake, and I really wouldn’t wanted to miss it out. I had completely forgotten all about it, with lots of things going on., when I received mail from Tina I realized I haven’t made anything, as I was not at home from past 4 days, and returned yesterday, I made it immediately, everything was done and even photos were done.., only I had to just type and post, which I was not able to do in the morning had to go to work :(.., so here I am a little late but I haven’t missed out, hope Tina will forgive me..This CCC challenge is something different, she asks us to do something from an other blogger who is not too somebody like a pioneer woman / Martha stewart etc. isn’t it interesting concept.., and I do love the challenge.

So, for this month’s Challenge Cheese Cake I Chose this recipe from Anuradha’s Blog , she as you all know who is behind the famous Muffin Monday and blogs at Bakerstreet.tv, she is a wonderful blogger with loads of dessert recipes, and the lovely Muffins which I love to bake, I used to be part of it…, which was a bit difficult for me as every week I couldn’t nudge my kids to finish the muffins with other baking stuff, I keep doing.., so I had to sit back on it.., I have book marked a few too.., Her presentation and beautiful photography is amazing. If anybody is interested in Muffin Monday, do write to her. Thanks Anu for this lovely write up of how to bake a perfect Cheese cake 101, check out her blog for a detailed explanation, I again as always just changed them into eggless and still my kids liked it, My daughter who loves cheese cakes said the hint of Lime gave the cheese cake a wonderful touch…Here is how the recipe goes…

She talks about how to bake a perfect cheese cake – according to her, there are a few things we need to keep in mind while baking a cheese cake so what are they-1. All the Ingredients should be at room temperature2. Oven should be preheated3. Water in theBain Marie must be warm4. Using a spring form tin5. Additional lining of parchment paper so there will be no leakage of the batter and seeping into the Bain Marie

FILLING:I have made a few changes – If you would like the original recipe do check the link above250 gms of Cream Cheese ( I used Philadelphia)250 gms of Ricotta Cheese1/2 Cup Sugar1/4 cup + 2 tbsp Apple sauce1/4 Cup Condensed milk1/2 tsp vanilla1 tsp Lime Juice1 tbsp – zest of one medium Lime1/2 Cup fresh strawberries

METHOD:Heat oven to 180 degree / Gas Mark 4, oven rack in the middle, Lightly grease the sides of your pan.Line theCombine biscuits, sugar, cinnamon and melted butter to making into crumbs, Press these crumbs into the bottom of the prepared pan.Bake the crust in a preheated oven for 10 minutes until the edges are slightly browned.Now in a large bowl beat the cream cheeses together until its creamy and free of lumps, then add the sugar and beat until it is smooth.Now and scraping them from the bowl bringing them together.Blend Apple sauce and condensed milk until well combined and smooth.Add this to the cheese batter with vanilla, lime juice and zest of lime, beat all of them just until smooth and well combined.I sprinkled some chopped strawberries which I had hulled and tossed with 2 tbsp of sugar and a tsp of zest orange, which I had kept aside.Bake to 40 to 45 minutes or until the cake is set and the center still jiggles, She says you have to turn off the oven and let it sit inside the oven for an hour.Remove the cheesecake from the oven, leave it to cool to room temperature.Run a metal spatula around the edge to prevent any cracks, Release the sides of the spring form tin and place cheese cake on a plate.And Refrigerate it for at least 4 hours but I refrigerated the whole night (she says it can be done too).

USING BAIN MARIECover the tin from outside with a Aluminium foil, before pouring the batter into the tin, Once you pour the batter, then keep this in an other container which is filled not completely with warm water, check out her blog or some videos in google on how it worksSo why use Bain Marie – They say that while baking a cheese cake baking this way helps in preventing the cake getting cracks in the center.

NOTES:After beating the cheese until cream and smoothy, she adds Egg at this stage.She uses Strawberries in the middle of the cheese cake filling and again pours half the batter on top of it, for this she takes few strawberries hulled and which is already tossed with 2 tbsp of sugar and a zest of orange which was kept aside.you can run a knife or skewer through the batter giving it a swirl effect.I had very little strawberries so I skipped this step.

Check out all the cheese cake out here and enjoy……Thanks Tina and Anuradha for this wonderful journey on cheese cake…..

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Hi everybody, Hope you are all doing well, me.. ?, Oh! no I will tell you :), bloging is not jsut just about blogging food that’s what I have come to know, because I keep writing to you all about my troubles too. When I joined this Eggless Baking Club I thought I will not hold them back, baked this cake as soon as possible but could not post it right on time.., As always left it right to the last, and when time to post it, It just happened very simple because I could not sit in front of the comp because of severe cervical spondylosis., good luck to me, Hopefully, I will finish this post today completely.Gayatri of Gayatri’s cook spot started this Eggless baking and I joined in with her and she asked us to bake this Coconut cake and told me to do whatever I want with the main Ingredient that is coconut as a must and no eggs.., If you would like to join her in the venture drop a line to her.If you are a regular reader of my blog you would have certainly noticed that I love baking eggless, and here I go with my recipe substituting eggs. Bascially the cake had 3 eggs and the recipe was from indobase.

METHODPreheat oven to Gas Mark 4/180-175 degree Celsius**Grease a rectangular tin and line with a parchment paperFirst of all take all the Dry Ingredients such as the flours, Baking soda, Baking powder and salt, combine all of them well together, sieve it at least three times and keep aside.Blend Tofu, apple and milk well, In a large bowl take melted butter and sugar cream them together until well combined to this add the blend tofu mixture, add vanilla sugar and combine them all well together.Pour this liquid mixture into the dry ingredients and blend them well together, here add pineapple pieces ( I used tinned pineapple juice and pieces ) as always do not over mix the batter as it is an Eggless cake.Pour this cake batter into the tin and bake for 30 to 35 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

**My oven is slightly showing different temperatures, so I usually bake my cake on Gas Mark 3, so My cake was white in colour, when I increased it a bit more it started giving colour to the cake, so it is better to know your oven and bake the cake.Once baked take it out of the oven and leave it on the wire rack for 5 minutes then invert the cake on to the wire cake until it cools down, then turn it around and slice them into pieces and serve it.

My Verdict:

As you can see it was well baked, next time I have planned only one flour either Barley or Quinoa, The cake wasn’t too moist, My eldest daughter was saying eating this cake reminded her of Sankrathi yellu – Bella mixture! :), The kids liked it ( I wouldn’t say loved it, as I used different flours plain flour has a different texture and taste right ? ), well, they have come to terms that mum will never use just plain flour and will definitely muddle up the recipe, they like it, sometimes they just love it.

The best thing happened was H’s friend visited me, I offered him the cake he really loved it, and took an other piece as his partner is a vegetarian I offered some cake for him to take home for her, he was delighted and actually asked me if I didn’t mind he would take extra pieces :), I was over the moon so I gave him half the cake and the rest was consumed by my family!, Now I have to bake something again….

Totally I was really pleased as I was happy I baked a healthy cake and my kids had a healthy treat.., you try out and tell me how it turned out and did you like it ?, I would really like to hear from you…

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Ooo that sounds nice, I bake lot of Banana cakes in different varities and all of them are mostly eggless, as it has already got banana in it I don’t need to add an Egg most of the time.This is the second time I baked this cake, the minute I saw this cake here, I wanted to try it out and the first time I made it I just omitted the egg, My eldest loves these Banana loafs, cakes, muffins etc., as I make it rich, which she can nibble on!, (secret – nothing big!), I will post them soon, but this one was very good and she loved it, thanks to both Nags and Belinda Jeffery.You want to know what happened, I baked it on a weekend, went out and came back to see a very little piece left, you know who ate it, my twins!, My eldest was with me, she had a bit before we went out, as she was so upset :(, told her I will make it again.If you want it Eggless just forget to add the Egg :))You must read the write up by Nags to read about the lovely book and this lovely recipe…

Preheat oven to 180 degree, Gas Mark 4I made it by hand she used her food processor, Check out how she has done it.How I made it..I pureed my bananas in my mixie to a puree (I used 2 small Bananas I had 1 cup so, I used it completely, didn’t know what to do with it!)In a large bowl, I put my Banana Puree, Buttermilk, butter, Sugar and Egg and whisked it well enough that they all got throughly combined and to this I added Baking powder,Baking soda, salt and vanilla extract, mixed well together again.I had sifted the flour before I started off, I added the flour into it in parts and incorporated it completely into my liquidy mixture, Poured it into a tin lined with Baking sheet and baked it for 35 to 40 minutes, until the skewer came out clean, I had baked it in a smaller tin, It doesn’t look anything like hers, but tasted great.That’s it, said and done, did you like it, go make it then and enjoy.Thanks very much, try more recipes and post it, we will enjoy the visual treat from yours and enjoy making it in our kitchens :)).

c u soon with an other recipe from hers to mine :))

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This is in my draft from quite sometime, I have been meaning to post it from a long time!, decided to post it today, I took this recipe from here, It came out very well as you can see, I did not use any frosting or anything, because I will not be able to eat it!, as it becomes too rich for me, When I had started baking I really wanted to use the fruit purees and I tried my own version of Strawberry cake and to my amazement it turned out so well, I couldn’t believe it and it was eggless too…As this one was eggless too, I wanted to give it a try and this one turned out well too..

METHOD:Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, Gas Mark 4.Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt together until well combined.Put the butter and sugar and beat it until light and fluffy using a mixer in a high speed.To this beaten mixture, add vanilla extract and pureed strawberries, fold in evenly.Then add the flour until well incorporated, fold in lightly do not mess with it too much 🙂Once the batter is ready pour it into the prepared cake tin, and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.Take the tin out from the oven and cool it on a rack for 10 minutes then loosen the tin, and remove the cake from the tin, sprinkle powdered sugar or frosting on it, and serve it.I just it like that, as I love to eat just as it is than the frosting which I do not like.That’s why you might see my cakes simple and plain :)).

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When I saw this in her blog, I was so interested because of two things, one is the bright colour and the other is the beetroots. As I have told you in my previous posts, she does a lot of Ground work and you have to read about it in her blog. She says it is so famous in US and goes on telling a story about a lady who was impressed that she really wanted to try it out on her own and asked for the recipe, but was refused and proceeded on buying the recipe and was charged so much, I mean a way too much, that she took her revenge by giving the recipe to every one!She even quotes from New york times, which I think you should read it in her blog and here is the link to the original recipe. She has a group of twitter friends who experiment new things and this was one of them, she says she adopted this recipe from Hannah’s seeing Red, I adopted this from her blog with the changes she made to the originally recipe. The only variation I did was getting very tempted I added my flax seed mixture. Check out her blog about all the information about this gorgeous looking cakes.As she says the cakes sold used the Red colour or the beetles, which we cannot use as a vegetarian she says substituting beets was a wonderful trick. and it certainly looked Red.

EGGLESS RED VELVET CUP CAKES

INGREDIENTS:

1 and 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour

1 and 1/4 cup Sugar

1 and 1/2 tbsp Cocoa powder

1 and 1/2 tsp Baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 Cup Pureed beets

1/3 cup oil

3 tbsp Lemon Juice

1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp Flax seed

METHOD:

First of all I took fresh medium sized beets as Aparna did, peeled and cooked them until soft, with 2 to 3 tbsp of water make it into a puree and keep aside until needed.

Mix all the flour, sugar, cocoa, and Baking powder and salt in a bowl, then take an other bowl whisk together Pureed beets,oil, lemon juice, flax seed powder, vanilla extract lightly so they all combine together well, then pour the dry ingredients mix well combined pour this into 12 cups equally.

Bake the cakes at 180c for about 20 to 25 minutes (I took a little longer), it totally depends on your ovens, insert a tooth pick to check if it is done then cool them on a wire rack.

Once it is cooled decorate it with any frosting of your choice, Aparna tells us that it is usually served with a butter roux frosting or cream cheese frosting.

But she has served it a mascarpone frosting, She has made her own mascarpone cheese but I used shop bought, as I had not planned on this, and on a whim I made these cup cakes!

So, here goes how you have to make this frosting….

MASCARPONE FROSTING:

3/4th cup cream

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup Mascarpone cheese

1 tsp vanilla essence

METHOD:

Beat the chilled cream first until stiff add sugar and vanilla essence and beat well until it incorporates well, I used a masher and break open the mascarpone lumps, Add this to the whipped cream and beat on well just as long as it gets well Incorporated into the cream, as she points it is quite soft and is better to keep it refrigerated,

Then I decorated the cup cakes as I desired.

My Verdict: The cakes were good as any eggless cakes were, the frosting made it extra special, kids liked it but not too much as they thought it was weird to use beets in a cake!, then I sent some to my friends who said it was quite nice and liked it!, My husband never touched it as he hates Beetroots!, I have to always beg him or forcefully make him eat the dry curry I usually make.

Take an other look at my Red cup cakes……….

The cakes were not only RED but my hands were too..

I am sending this of to Tried and tested event of Zlamushka’s, being carried on by Lakshmi and this month hosted by valli of cooking4allseasons.Hope valli will still accept my entries, as I have tried but not able to post them on time…

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About me

Hello and welcome, I am Jayasri – As every other food blogger says, I am the Author, writer, cook, Recipe creator and photographer and all other roles behind this blog.
An e-diary showcasing my Journey through the spices and condiments in my everyday life. vegetarian and Vegan recipes with healthy cooking and baking bites for a healthy lifestyle. For any queries and feed back contact me by dropping an email - Jayasri.myvegfare@gmail.com Read More…

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Hello and welcome, I am Jayasri – As every other food blogger says, I am the Author, writer, cook, Recipe creator and photographer and all other roles behind this blog. An e-diary showcasing my Journey through the spices and condiments in my everyday life. vegetarian and Vegan recipes with healthy cooking and baking bites for a healthy lifestyle. For any queries and feed back contact me by dropping an email - Jayasri.myvegfare@gmail.com Read More…